FOREST BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT AND ITS GLOBAL TARGET FOR 2030

Abstract

          Biological diversity plays in a society, economy, and community. There is a growing recognition that biological diversity has tremendous value to all mankind at present and in the future.  Loss of biodiversity has an adverse effect at the national, regional, and international level. A number of countries face biodiversity loss. The fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Kunming, China in 2021 and in Montreal, Canada in 2022 adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This Framework supports the achievement of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use and sets out the pathway to achieve the global vision. One of the Framework’s key elements is the global targets for 2030 which are reducing threats to biodiversity, meeting people’s needs through sustainable use and benefit-sharing, and tools and solutions for implementation and mainstreaming. Therefore, the parties to the CBD commit to implement the Framework.

This paper studies Thai legislation regarding forest management, namely the Forest Act B.E. 2484 (1941), the National Reserved Forest Act B.E. 2507 (1964), the Plant Variety Protection Act B.E. 2542 (1999), the National Parks Act B.E. 2562 (2019) and the Community Forest Act B.E. 2562 (2019). It also examines whether the law enforcement could help Thailand reach the 2030 global targets. The findings show that Thailand could reach the target for conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity through the law enforcement. However, the law per se may not be a tool for Thailand to achieve the target of expanding area-based conservation to 30 per cent of lands and the target of sharing fair and equitable benefits arising from utilization of forest biodiversity. Additionally, this paper proposes recommendations for Thailand in achieving the global targets regarding the matter of expanding conservation area and sharing benefits.